| Hi Folks! Just two weeks to Christmas! My wife is going frantic trying to buy suitable Christmas presents and get them posted in good time. If you are having this problem, you can buy a Gift Voucher from SatCure for £5, £10, £15 or £20 and email it to your friends in time for Christmas. If there's no time to order a physical product, they can use it to buy an eBook even on Christmas Day or Boxing Day (to while away those boring hours between turkey sandwiches. ;-) Right now there's still time to order a physical product. Who do you know that might like an additional Remote Control Handset with a tvLINK (magic eye) or a Powermid wireless remote system? Take a look through our on-line catalogue to remind yourself of what's on offer. Posting delays: Right now Royal Mail seems to be coping with the onslaught but it won't last. Our experience is that some "First Class" packages are not going to arrive till after Christmas - assuming they arrive at all. We recommend that you ask us to use Recorded Delivery as a minimum. It costs around 70p extra and is FAR more likely to arrive on time. For small packages in Great Britain, Special Delivery guarantees arrival by noon on the next working day. For small packages going outside Great Britain you should ask for "Swift Air" or equivalent. If your order is large or heavy then we'll use carrier delivery which will reach you next working day or the day after (although we've had a couple recently which didn't, for various reasons - profuse apologies!) Our Sales office will be closing for Christmas on the evening of December 23rd. However, orders received after 2pm 22nd December are unlikely to be shipped until after we re-open on January 4th. Orders for eBooks (electronic books) are handled automatically so you can still buy an eBook for download if you get bored! I will be around during the holiday period to answer technical questions but I won't be able to answer questions about order progress.
ITV decision? Still no news of ITV's decision on its future relationship with BskyB although an announcement may be imminent.
Unsuitable aerial Purchased a DAT45 Aerial and 5020 PSU and delivered on 08/12/04. Have installed it in loft for Freeview reception, but seems as if its not receiving properly. How do I find out if the MRD is working as it apparently should? If it is faulty, I would like you to advise what I should do. I am only 4 miles from the Chesterfield transmitter with line of sight to the mast, and already receive all Freeview signals from an external aerial through a Nokia box to my main TV. An uplead goes back to the loft, and through a distribution amp to other (analogue) TV's. After connecting up the DAT45 aerial (vertical polarisation aligned by compass bearing) and the PSU in the loft, and feeding it to the downstairs room where the PC is located, but not through the distibution amp, the reception was poor. Tried it through an old Fringe distribution amp (5.5 dB gain), but whilst it did improve slightly, only 2-3 multiplexes were received. Connections: The AverTV DVB-T card has an aerial lead connected to a wall-plate, which is connected to ordinary brown co-ax cable into the loft-space. From there I used CT100 cable to the amp / psu, and to the DAT45. I know there are some deficiencies here, but almost the same connection was used to feed from the 18-element / masthead amp / Fringe dist amp. Ray Dear Ray, The DAT45 aerial has a massive 16dB gain and is designed for use in very weak signal areas - say 20 - 30 miles from the nearest transmitter. By aiming it at a transmitting mast only four miles away you are likely produce a signal which is far too strong for the MRD to handle so the first thing you should do is remove the power supply. Then make sure the aerial is connected to the Freeview box by a single continuous length of *double-shielded* cable and fit a 20dB variable attenuator to the Freeview aerial input to further reduce the signal to a manageable amplitude. Even this may not be sufficient and you may need to remove half of the director elements to further reduce the gain. In addition, aerials like the DAT45 which have an angled reflector are not really suitable for vertical polarisation. You should choose an aerial that has a flat reflector and will work when mounted horizontally or vertically. The double-shielded cable is of paramount importance because, with the the transmitter so close, the cable itself is liable to pick up a significant amount of signal and cause major problems with the reception. Any ordinary TV cable will kill any effort to get a usable signal. A better option would be to return the items to us for a refund and think carefully about what you need to buy. My suggestion would be to seek the advice of a competent local installer who will be familiar with any problems in your area.
Buying Sky Plus I want to receive Sky plus, the full package. If possible I would like to subscribe to Sky on a monthly basis as and when I require the service (I may be out of the country for a month or two each year!) I want to buy my own equipment so that I do not have any obligations to Sky (such as an always on telephone connection etc). I only require the service in 1 room in my bungalow. I do believe that I could carry out the installation myself. I would like some decent equipment; a good dish; good cable; good receiver; easy as possible set-up gear (satellite finder etc) in fact a package that I could order from your goodselves which would leave me worry free. Advice about the sky subscription would be useful (do I contact them direct and ask for service?) Thank you, best regards, Michael We don't sell the SKY+ Digiboxes because we are not Authorised Sky Agents (and don't want to be). We *could* get hold of the SKY+ boxes but I read so much about their unreliability that I really don't want to get involved. If you want one, try my friend, Chris: (01270) 764323 He should be able to send you the Sky contract, too. Obviously we can supply everything else but you might find it more convenient to buy it from him. Cams, Cards and Programmers After reading about Sky's FTV satellite system for £150 on your website I have ordered one - which is due to be installed shortly. I am interested in 'expanding' my viewing choices but I certainly don't want to subscribe to Sky's packages. Can I buy 'add-ons' such as CAMS, cards & programmers from you (or even an extra receiver if that's what it takes) from you in order to give me more viewing options? Regards, Mike No. we don't get involved with piracy but we can supply the rest of the kit. You will certainly need a different receiver and dish. Take a look at our technical section. http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/page9.htm http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/channels.htm And buying a bundle might be cheaper than buying individual bits: http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page14.htm Hope this helps. If you want a specific CAM then we may be able to get it for you. I can't help with cards and programmers. I think Andy at Astratech is doing those: http://www.satelliteonline.net I can recommend him as an honest bloke (as far as his customers are concerned!) and he'll tell you all about the naughty stuff. (top)
Why use CT100? Why use CT100 ? I see that you supply CT100 cable which I believe is the spec that I should be using for Digital Satellite ? However, I see that Screw-Fix sell what they call PH100 as "Sky Endorsed" for Analogue and Digital Satellite. I have not found any reference to that type of cable here. Could you tell me the difference ? i.e., which (if any is better) ? I realise that "better" is probably subjective, but is there any reason why I should favour one over the other ? I plan on flood wiring (coax and Cat5) the house which I have just purchased, there will be two sat coax cables to every room but in one room I also need 2 "network" coax cables (not for PC LAN). The network is supposed to use RG59 or better, say, RG6. I have not been able to determine if CT100 would meet or exceed the performance of RG59 when used on a 5MBit/s computer network. Ideally, I would just use CT100 for the lot - do you think that this would be OK, i.e., be at least as good as RG59/6 ? Steven You can see our CT100 cable specifications here: http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/cablespecs.htm Ask Screwfix for their PH100 specifications and see how they compare. RG59 specification seems to vary according as the manufacturer. For example, Raydex sell RG59-B/U which has a steel core (high losses) and only braided shielding (poor shielding compared with cable that uses both braid and foil). It's not suitable for TV or satellite TV use since its losses exceed 50dB at less than 1 GHz. It might be more suited for audio frequencies or FM radio. I would imagine that most coaxial cables will have lower losses than that. However, you have to take into account other factors. Is a steel core necessary to give robustness? Will the connectors that you use fit onto a "better" cable (which may have a larger diameter)? Will you be passing high frequencies? Will the lengths be long enough for losses to matter? Do you actually need higher performance or are you wasting money? If you are planning to use the cable for TV then CT100 (or H109) is the absolute *minimum* specification, although our "SATDS" isn't bad for short indoor runs where better flexibility is required. http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page8.htm#RG6 You seem to have missed the cable review which you might find enlightening: http://www.your-book.co.uk/cable.htm Have a dig around our web sites and eBooks. It's all there.
Splitting the LNB output I have a Non Sky satellite dish connected to a Panasonic TV with inbuilt SKY receiver. I do not remember who I bought the dish from or what type of LNB it has. I would like to connect a second receiver (Non SKY) to the dish. I have looked through your catalogue but cannot see a splitter/amplifier for the signal from the LNB to connect to two(or more) receivers. Is there such an item? Jim No, you can't realistically expect to do this because each receiver has to send a voltage to the LNB (13v or 18v to select Vertical or Horizontal polarisation) and an ultrasonic tone (22kHz) to select High band as required. If two receiver are connected they will end up fighting! You could use an LNB switch to select one receiver or the other (one at a time) but the best answer is to use an LNB with 2, 4 or 8 outputs. If you have more than 8 receivers you will need a "Quattro" LNB and a "multiswitch" unit. (top)
Wall plates Trying to replace the following: I have a wall plate with two F Type (female) threaded plugs n one marked FM, the other TV. Behind the plate is a small metal box with a further single F Type (female) plug. I imagine the box contains a FM/TV diplexer/splitter? Do you know where I might obtain similar? Or obtain parts to make something up? Thank you Web pages and eBooks read: none I recommend you look at the wall plates in our on-line catalogue. http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page15.htm#plates (top)
DigiEye in The Times I have seen an article in the Times re your DigiEye at £46. I am interested in getting one and seeing if it works OK as the TV Link/Eye that I have to operate the Sky channels on a "second" TV doesn't work. Have you got one of these DigiEyes in stock and where can I order one on your web site? Web pages and eBooks read: None Please take a couple of minutes to read the "How to Order" instructions. http://www.satcure.co.uk/orders.htm
Budget RF Modulator My father-in-law recently purchased an RF modulator (the budget one) through your web site on my advise in order to attach a DVD player to his 20 year old TV. Connecting it up directly to the TV via the modulator produced a picture from a playing DVD but the sound was very weak and almost obliterated by excessive noise. Do you have any idea what is happening and if so, how it can be sorted out? Web pages and eBooks read: none Yes, the person who placed the order will have received a "Keep-me" message containing the web page address that explains the adjustment that needs to be made. "This cheap unit is adjustable for PAL-I or PAL-G. Please note: although most are supplied as PAL-I, some are already adjusted for PAL-G. We have no way of knowing without testing them so you might have to adjust yours when it arrives (instructions supplied - not difficult)." If you confirm the "Keep-me" number (the 7 digit order number) I can give you the page link for the instructions or you can get it from the original "Keep-me" message. We supply this information only to bona-fide customers. (top)
Happy Customers
Regarding Customer receipt (Keep-me): 3258973 Thank you for your order which arrived promptly, and correct in all respects. The follow-up email is a real one-up on any other supplier that I have dealt with, and it shows that the many testimonials on your website are genuine. One sometimes wonders whether suppliers write their own!! Keep up the good work, and I will gladly recommend you to anyone I know who needs advice and equipment on satellite TV. Thanks to Martin and his dedicated team, Roger H.
Re O/N 3201908 Arrived safely Wed 1.12.04. Brilliant service, thanks very much. Regards Geoff.
Re your message. I have been using online downloads before the web was a gleam in anyone's eye so this was routine for me but thanks for your concerns. I only discovered satcure on Sunday and as well as the Ebook I have downloaded loads of stuff since then. I do think you are brilliant! Regards Graham
Thanks Order number: 3243265 I recieved the replacement parts for the power supply of my four year old Grundig Sky Digital box on saturday and got them installed that night. I am amazed at the difference it made, the picture was better (no more random interferance), I could actually view all the channels all the time and I feel it has really improved the quality of my life (ok so I needed a third point to add!) What is suprising is the fact that I didn't really feel this was going to make much of a difference, especially as Sky had come out to install Sky Plus and been unable to help with my old box - which I now use for multiroom. If only there was more knowedge that this kind of thing happens, I was starting to think it was never going to be solved or it was a more serious problem with the box itself. Anyway, much appreciated. Patrick.
Regarding Customer receipt (Keep-me): 3251367 Thanks for the customer service follow up, I managed to download hye ebook within 30 mins o me ordering it, well done. Great customer service. Thanks once again, Brian S.
Regarding Customer receipt (Keep-me): 3223516 I have today received an email from Janet asking if I received my order on time and asking if it was what I was expecting. I would just like to take the time to say thank you. I have been using the internet to buy things for a long time now, and I have bought allsorts, but I have never had such an email after a purchase before. The product I ordered did arrive on time, in one piece and was exactly as ordered. It was only a small item, but the follow up email has made it even more of a pleasant purchase. Thank you. Neil H.
Regarding Customer receipt (Keep-me): 3270942 Dear Satcure, Just writing a quick note to say thanks for the excellent service. The filter that I ordered to fix the "Satellite signal not received" on my Panasonic Sky box arrived in less than a day !! Fitting it was a piece of cake and since then no more problems. My wife has stopped "tutting" when she could not get the channel she wanted which means my life has got easier! Also, I had forgotten how much I used to like soldering to get things fixed. Thanks again very much and Merry Christmas to all the team at Satcure !!
(top) Note: Mediabullet has moved servers From Radio Bullet ( http://www.mediabullet.co.uk/radio/ ): From Sky Digi Online ( http://www.mediabullet.co.uk/skydigital ): (top)
eBook Updates - "The Freeview Bible" December 13, 2004.
- All eBooks have been moved to a secure server which requires a username and password. Please contact Me with your original Order number and ask for the new download information, stating exactly which eBook(s) you purchased and the EBK number.
http://www.The-Cool-Book-Shop.co.uk | 
